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1. The hormones in birth control pills prevent the uterus from building up its lining (endometrium) as thick as it would be under a normal fertile cycle. This effect is mainly from the progesterone in the pills. Progesterone’s function in the body is to maintain the endometrium in stasis, so that it…

College is a big change in a person’s life. It’s a change that is far more stressful than many would even realize. When you leave for college, your living arrangements change, you’re eating new food and you’ve got a hectic schedule to keep. All these stressors can cause your period to be late. If…

If you feel like – and you seem to be very clearly saying you do – that YOU need to hold off on sex with someone new, for YOU, that’s really all you need to know. You’re the only person waiting needs to be okay with. If it’s not okay with anyone else, too bad for them. Some not-as-yet boyfriend…

I don’t know of anyone who would think that they needed to guard their drink from someone they thought of as a best friend. I sure wouldn’t. There’s just no sound reason, at all, for you to think that for some reason, you should have thought to do something that pretty much no one on earth would…

Hey there, Gabi. Have a deep breath, and let it out good and slow: it is going to be okay. I want to make something clear from the get-go. YOU are the one who gets the final say here. Not your boyfriend, but also not your Mom, either. Making a choice about a pregnancy is a big deal, it’s something…

Is it possible to have sex with someone while they’re asleep? Sure it is. Is it likely they won’t wake up at all? Not so much. Is it likely that person would wake up and think it was awesome someone was engaging them in sex without their permission in advance? Probably not. More to the point, is it…

Absolutely! Oral sex poses the potential for STI transmission for both the giver and the receiver. So it’s wise to make sure you’re using a condom (or a dental dam for oral sex on a woman) each time. One of my favorite examples of the risks associated with this is that of herpes. Many many many…

Whether or not you’re going to believe me, I’ll be plain with you anyway. Your lack of confidence and low self-esteem are ALWAYS going to be a WAY bigger impediment to “getting the attention,” and more importantly, to having great relationships with romantic partners AND friends…and most…

When you and a partner have no clothing on, and direct genital-to-genital contact, please understand that it isn’t dry sex anymore. The “dry” in dry sex is pretty critical: it means that sex was had in which there was no chance of any fluid contact or exchange. If you’ve got a naked penis rubbing…

Withdrawal is NOT an effective birth control method: just ask my parents, and their parents, and…you get the picture. I also have a fantastic nephew who I adore, both of whose parents swear (and have no reason to lie, really) that they practiced withdrawal PERFECTLY. Apparently not. That’s the…

If he refuses to change his mind, then this isn’t someone to marry, or even stay with anymore. Legally and emotionally tying yourself to someone who doesn’t give you a voice both in the kind of sex you have and when you become pregnant is legally and emotionally tying yourself to a kind of sexual…

Here are the possibilities, in order of most likely to least: He WAS with someone else over this last year. I know that’s certainly the least easy possibility to look at, but if he really tested all clear before the last round of tests within the amount of time you two have been together, and you…

This kind of thing is not an issue with your genitals changing in any way. It has more to do with your mind. One big thing that has long been the conundrum of married and long-term couples everywhere when it comes to sex is the fact that our libidos really do tend to thrive on changing things up…

An erection happens when certain structures on your body stiffen due to either increased blood flow, or muscular flexing. But usually, people tend to talk about the penis when they are talking about erection. When a person with a penis is stimulated tactilely (by touch) or mentally (such as with…

It’s really tough to say. Ultimately, the only person who can know for sure if they’ve reached orgasm is the person who is having one. For sure, often people’s expectations of orgasm can be off-base, especially if they’re primarily based on fictional depictions of orgasm. While sometimes orgasm can…

For all the peeps who aren’t familiar with the term ED, we’re talking about Erectile Dysfunction or impotence. And, yes, it’s normal and happens to a lot of people with penises. I strongly suggest you see a urologist regarding your ED, especially for a person your age. You limited erection can be…

Let’s do what we can to work this out, okay? I know it’s tough – especially if you’re also dealing with trauma in your family – and it’s scary, but it really is workable. I don’t know what you mean when you say you’re always careful, but there are currently – sparing men or women who get…

Nanelline: it is often tricky in some areas still to access or find emergency contraception in some areas, and unfortunately, yours is certainly one of the tricky ones. Here is what the Princeton EC site (which has a wonderful tool on that page for finding what EC options are available in every…

The most common reasons for what you are experiencing would be: • Beginning vaginal entry before you are really, truly, fully aroused. As in, aroused to the point where you are very nearly begging your partner to begin intercourse because you just can’t wait another minute for it. THAT is the point…

Phew! This is a lot of information – and that’s helpful – but there is also a lot to address in here. I’m seeing an awful lot of unrealistic expectations, from you and from your girlfriend, so I’d like to speak to those. Unrealistic expectations about sex really can make the sex we’re having be a…

If you’re uneasy about it, then I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s probably not the time to do it yet. We can like someone a lot and be intimate in ways with them that don’t require sex or any given type of sex, and which also don’t put us at risk of things we’re not prepared to be at risk for…

Yes, coldsores are the oral herpes virus, or HSV-I. Your friend has it right. Understand that most people do not contract oral herpes sexually, but through casual contact, and the majority of people with oral herpes contract it in childhood, just by doing things like sharing glasses with family…

If we’re going to think of our genitals as big, any one of us, given the small range between them, we should think everyone’s genitals are big. We also need to accept that it’s ignorant or misinformed to think, presume or suggest that penises are big but vaginas are small, because we really are all about the same size. If thinking big is better for one sex, it’s also got to be better for the other. So, if you or someone else is going to go on about some big penis, you’d best get just as excited about the idea of a big vagina, and make having a big ol’Vagowski just as cool. And if you’re all hung up on the idea that the vagina be as small as it can possibly be, or is such a small thing, then you’ve got to accept that penises are small, too.

Rape is when someone forces, coerces or nags you to do ANY kind of sexual activity you don’t want to engage in, or when someone has sex ON you or TO you, rather than 100% WITH you. A partner forcing his hands into your pants and fingering you when you do not want that is a rape. Whether or not it…

Say you don’t really dig giving oral sex. That really is all there is to it. Very few people like to do EVERYTHING there is to do sexually. I bet your boyfriend doesn’t like to do everything any given partner of his might or will want to do, either. Maybe it’s that he doesn’t really like someone…